Patents

Patents

1. What is patent?

Patent is an exclusive right granted by state for aninvention which is new, involves an inventive step and is susceptible of industrial application.

Patent holder has an exclusive right to prevent or stop all others to use products or offer them for sale, or import product or process which is based on granted patent, if they do so without his approval.

Patent is granted by state patent institution of a country, or by regional patent institution for patents of the group of countries.

Protection is valid in the limited time period of 20 years from the date when the patent application is filed, provided that the prescribed fees for maintenance are paid. Those fees are paid for 3 years and for each next year, counting from the date when the application is filed, under the Law on administrative fees.

2. How is patent grant procedure conducted?

Patent grant procedure starts when the application is filed. A patent application must contain: 1) a request for the grant of a patent ( Form P1) ;2) a description of the invention (name invention, field of technics to which the invention refers, technical problems, state of art, presentation of the essence of invention, short description of the images of invention, if any, and detailed description);3)patent claims;4) a drawing (referred to in the description and patent claims) ;5) an abstract.

If it is found that all the conditions prescribed by law are fulfiled, the patent will be granted. Otherwise, reguest for patent grant will be refused.

3. Is protection for invention valid also in other countries?

No. Patent is territorial right and patent which is granted by our Office is effective only in the territory of our country.

4. How to protect invention in other countries?

Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) predicts filing one international patent application, which has the same effect as filing national application in each of designated countries. That is how it is provided for the applicant to be allowed to file one application and to request protection in several countries signatories to PCT in which he intends to protect the invention.

For further information about international protection of invention please refer to ‘’Instructions for filing international patent application’’.